A day before he embarked on his world tour, Central Cee released a short video in which he promised fans that they will see much better performances than the ones he had been previously serving up. This was due to a few lacklustre outings which he put down to exhaustion after carrying out around 200 shows in two years thanks to his rapid rise.
The 'day in a life' video showed clips of Central, real name Oakley Neil Caesar-Su, waking up in his sprawling luxurious countryside mansion, working out with his friends, travelling to meetings, sound check and showing off his backstage catering.
Proclaiming that he has "therapy on lock", Central, also known as Cench, sounded recharged and refocused, ready to take on a world tour off the back of his debut album, Can't Rush Greatness, and give his fans their money's worth.
On Saturday (March 19) thousands at the Co Op Live in Manchester were there to see if he was a man of his word. Cench's gig might be the youngest crowd the arena will see this year.
The average age of the crowd must have been no more than 17 with high school children filling every other seat of the mostly full arena. It was clear that Central Cee, 26, is the anointed one amongst the youth but that is bound to happen when a majority of your biggest songs gained popularity through Tik Tok first.
Although it was easy to spot the more mature folk in the audience if they were filming in landscape or horizontal on their phones.
After a decent warm up set from his DJ, playing some of the best in UK rap, grime and drill, Cench was onstage, promptly and bombastically. Introducing himself to the crowd with a flash, bang and needle drop into a rip roaring performance of Limitless.
The crowd was already buoyant, bopping in time to his infectiously head nodding instrumental or bouncy rap flow that he sometimes delivers in the style of an Irish shanty.
His voice is a deep booming one that demands attention, and despite their being a backing track, Cench is on form and sounds sharp. He was rarely stumbling over his words, barely broke a sweat and his breath control was exemplary.
The stage design was simple, but contextual. Cench's lyrics aren't much to write home about, but he has connected with fans thanks to his candidness, aspirational nature, mentions of a past life that involved criminality to make ends meet, as well as tales of pretty women he has mistreated and yearned for in good measure.
Behind Cench was a real Toyota Yaris, which is a common motif in his raps where he boasts about how he went from a "Yaris to a (Lamborghini) Urus." They couldn't get an actual Urus on the stage though, so later in the show we had to make do with a still image of one that was projected onto a sliding panel that would show different scenes like a hotel, café, grotty flat and a penthouse.
Locations that typically come up in Cench's lyrics about his lifestyle of past and present. During the show, there was also a pot shot at Manchester's own, Aitch, who is currently embroiled in a rap beef of sorts with Central.
This year, the London based rapper lamented missing out on Brit Awards in 2023 on 5 Star, the second song of his new album.
On the song, Central Cee raps that he felt like a "pr**k" at the awards because they gave a trophy to "a guy called Aitch". To which Aitch responded with a scathing diss track of his own and there hasn't been any resolution between the pair since.
In Aitch's city, Central Cee didn't seem shy about stoking those flames, while he skipped Aitch's name during the performance of 5 Star, he let the Manchester crowd fill in the gap and instead let out a mischievous laugh, amazed that the young fans acquiesced to slighting their own.
But at this point he had the youths in hysterics, and they were at his beck and call as he ran through his hits like Day in the Life, Cold Shoulder, St Patrick’s, Ten, Doja Cat, Sprinter, Did It First, Sprinter, BAND4BAND and more. There were also times for some special guests, Gorton native, Nemzzz made a surprise appearance for a duet with Cench of their song Dilemma, while Liverpool spitter, Mazza L20 also blessed the stage.
The biggest UK rapper in the world, Central Cee is top billing, and despite a short setback it seems like he is finally starting to act like it. Central Cee promised Manchester the best of him, and that's exactly what we got.
